A no-nonsense newsletter for busy leaders who are done with overwork and ready to scale smarter. Join a community of 15K+ leaders and followers across platforms getting concise, actionable insights on leadership, team building, and how to use AI and hybrid intelligence to make work easier—so you can earn more, go home earlier, and lead with purpose without burning out.
Will you co-create with me?
|
Hi there! I heard this phrase recently - “People support what they help create”. But it’s only part of the story. When people co-create, they don’t just support—they elevate. They build better products, more innovative organizations, and yes, even better books. As part of my writing journey, I’ve had the privilege of interviewing experienced leaders and CEOs. Their insights have been incredibly valuable. Take Hillel Fuld, for instance. He’s a renowned tech expert and startup advisor who believes that while technology can be copied, people and talent cannot. He shared a fascinating story about an investor—the first one in Uber—who met Travis Kalanick, Uber’s CEO. Despite the evident challenges, the investor believed that if anyone could make Uber a success, it’d be Travis. Talent, Hillel argues, is innate. It’s about recognizing it and recruiting people who are not just skilled but truly talented. Read the full interview here In another enlightening conversation, Erik Visser, CEO of Hamlet Protein, shared his thoughts on essential focus areas for a newly appointed CEO. He emphasized the power of questions like, “What would you do if you were the CEO of this company?” and “How can we help you be more effective in your role?” These questions often generate invaluable feedback and help in creating a collaborative environment. Read the full interview here. Speaking of collaboration, I recently wrote an article for Forbes Coaches Council titled The 5 Levels Of Team Trust: Mastering Remote Work Dynamics. In it, I describe the team trust pyramid and how leaders can build trust at various levels. Building trust is crucial, especially in remote teams, and understanding these dynamics can make all the difference. I have to be honest with you, writing about transforming disengaged, alienated teams into high-performing ones is quite a challenge. And I’d love to hear your thoughts. What’s the one thing you would absolutely never want to see in a book on this topic? Just hit reply and share your thoughts. Your feedback could help shape a better, more impactful book. Take care, Daria PS - If you enjoy these updates and want to stay in the loop, follow me on LinkedIn for articles and posts on leadership and team development. |
Meaning Makers
A no-nonsense newsletter for busy leaders who are done with overwork and ready to scale smarter. Join a community of 15K+ leaders and followers across platforms getting concise, actionable insights on leadership, team building, and how to use AI and hybrid intelligence to make work easier—so you can earn more, go home earlier, and lead with purpose without burning out.
Hi Reader! Daria’s here. For most of my career, I pushed through. Whatever it cost. Merging 500 people in an M&A that closed in a few months. A full restructure. A major telecom rebrand. I got it done. Every time. And then I’d get sick. It took me years to realize that most things don’t fail during a crisis. They fail after it. We brace for the disruption, push through it, then treat the recovery as automatic. It isn’t. Decision quality drifts. Alignment loosens. And because the emergency is...
Hi Reader, What do you think the top AI use is in 2026? Harvard Business Review studied 12,637 real cases of people using AI. And the #1 is Therapy and companionship — same as 2025. The most common way people use AI is for their personal life. To talk something through. Across all 12,637 cases, we see three main scenarios. People use AI to think, to feel, and to work. To feel — they talk through stress, ask for relationship advice, or work out what a message from their boss really meant. To...
Hi Reader, Back in 2011, I canceled the annual performance reviews in my organization. They were painful for everyone, managers and employees, and they weren't adding much. Things moved so fast that by the time a manager and an employee sat down to talk, the goals were already out of date. So we replaced the annual review with biweekly conversations between managers and their teams. A couple of years later, Deloitte wrote about it in its annual trends report as continuous performance...